1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to improved broadcasting systems and in particular to an improved rating response system for recipient rated wirelessly broadcast electronic works. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to selecting electronic works to broadcast based on previous ratings by a recipient of wirelessly broadcast electronic works and offering purchase options to a recipient of a wirelessly broadcast electronic work rated affirmatively by the recipient.
2. Description of the Related Art
Technological advancements in portable computer systems enable display and audio output of copyrightable works in an electronic form. These electronic works include, but are not limited to, music, film, video, and books. The technological advances, for example, continue to expand the types of electronic devices that play music and video. Further, technological advances are providing new ways of encapsulating music and video and new ways of distributing music and video.
In particular, one of the advances in devices that play electronic works is in portable electronic devices that play music from MPEG-1 Layer 3 (MP3) and other types of electronic compression file formats. MP3 files are typically small in memory size and thus are ideal for storage and play on portable electronic devices. Further, MP3 and other types of electronic formats of licensed works are often easily transferable from one device to another via a wire or wireless network. Further, music files may be streamed from one portable device to another creating a type of ad-hoc radio system.
As sharing of electronic works between users proliferates, users often receive copies of electronic works without the proper licenses. In some cases, recipients do not intend to acquire proper licensing. In other cases, however, recipients acquire copies of electronic works to sample the works and decide if they would like to purchase the work. Thus, it would be advantageous to prompt a user receiving a sample work to rate the work and prompt the user to purchase the work if the user gives the work a favorable rating.
Further, in the typical file sharing system, when electronic works are shared between users, it is typical for one user to view the electronic work catalog of the other user and request a copy of a specific work. In a broadcast system creating an ad-hoc radio, however, it would be more advantageous for electronic works to be continually broadcast based on the preferences of the recipient(s) or sender(s), but without the recipient(s) or sender(s) having to specifically choose each broadcast electronic work. Furthermore, it would be advantageous for a recipient of an electronic work to rate broadcast electronic works such that broadcast selections are dynamically adjusted based on ratings of recently broadcast electronic works.
Therefore, in view of the foregoing, it would be advantageous to provide a method, system, and program for prompting recipients of broadcast electronic works to rate the works and then use those ratings to dynamically adjust future broadcast work selections and to filter offers to purchase electronic works.